Monday, July 13, 2009

Camping, Montana Style

This past weekend, we joined my cousin Christy and her family at the Tongue River Reservoir for some camping and some boating. It was Maggie's very first boat ride and she loved every minute of it. We bought her a swimsuit with a floatie built in and then added on the state required life jacket and she became the Unsinkable Maggie Dailey. Though she never did want to let go of anyone. She clung to Daddy, me and even her new best friend Torrey whenever she got in the water, but still begged to stay in and go back in. Sunday morning involved a lot of pouting as she wanted to go back in the water practically the minute she woke up.

We got to the Tongue River around noon-ish on Saturday, set up camp and Maggie, Justice and Ethan got into the water just as fast as they could -- well, we all did as it was very hot and we were all very sweaty after setting up the camp. There's not a lot of tree cover at the river and we decided next time, we are going to bring some kind of awning to provide some relief. At lunch, we just watched the cheese melt.

We spent several hours on the boat, swimming and tubing. The water temp was in the 70s and the air temp was in the 90s. Rocky, the smart man that he is, found 85 SPF sunblock and it worked very well. We ended up with some color, but not as bad as it could have been -- Christy got the worst of the sun. I had forgotten to keep the top of my head blocked by a hat or even spraying some sunscreen, so I have a bit of a sore scalp. I did end up sore, but I think it's more from the swimming than the sun. Maggie got a little pink on her nose and her chin is peeling a little.

Evening was lovely as we had a nice breeze and finally some shade. Justice, Ethan and Maggie chased toads. We enjoyed hamburgers, hot dogs, smores and some badly popped Jiffy Pop -- they really need to make a longer handle on the Jiffy Pop so you can use the campfire to pop it. The bugs were minimal and it really didn't even get chilly. Rocky and I enjoyed sleeping on our new air bed and frame. We brought our new 20 degree sleeping bags, but didn't need them at all.

Sunday morning, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, much to Maggie's chagrin (Mommy, can we please go in the water now? Please Mommy, please!) and tried to make coffee. We never did get the water to boil and Rocky picked up some coffee for all the adults when he went to get more ice. We took down the camp, except for our tent rainfly. Rocky and Torrey rigged it so we could have some shade to have lunch in before we left. A few more hours on the boat and we all enjoyed watching Torrey try to knock Ethan off the tube.

It was a wonderful weekend and we all can't wait to go again. Now if we can just get our scheduled to match up!